


Oval Variations

by dafna



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-01-19
Updated: 2002-01-19
Packaged: 2017-10-02 12:59:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dafna/pseuds/dafna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>CJ sits through a very boring meeting in the Oval Office. Twice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oval Variations

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Jae's "livejournal mood" challenge](http://www.jaegecko.com/mood/). In this case, it's the same scene twice, but in two different moods. My two other responses to this challenge were a Jed/Leo vignette and a (gasp!) Sentinel piece.

**"Oval Variations, No. 1"**

CJ was nodding her head in the right places but she'd stopped listening about 20 minutes ago.

In theory, they were formulating a strategy to win over the Senate leadership so that the United States wouldn't, you know, go to _war_ with the EU over a bunch of bananas. But from there it was just a quick skip and a jump to trade protectionism in general and then a bigger leap over to mercantilism and the American Revolution and listening to Jed Bartlet argue with Sam Seaborn about Thomas Hutchinson's role in the Stamp Act, CJ thought there was really something to be said for electing a commander-in-chief who was, well, less burdened in the brains department.

She could tell Josh wasn't listening, either. His eyes were glazed over and he'd lost his grip on his pen. It slipped out of his hand, and CJ watched it bounce on the Oval Office carpet.

Toby was leaning back, his hands folded in true Toby-wan style. His eyes were shuttered but she could tell he was following the conversation, ready to jump in if either one of them needed to be corrected.

Leo was blatantly ignoring them all, and she envied his ability to go over budget numbers while sitting two feet from the president. His glasses rested precariously on his nose and CJ itched to go over and push them back for him.

Right, she thought. And then you can straighten his tie, too. You're not his mother. Or Margaret.

She sighed, kicking her heel against what was probably a very expensive chair. The glamour of it all had long since worn off. You come to work every day and eventually you stop caring that the conference room table is older than your, you know, state.

You come to work every day, she thinks again, and it all starts to blur. There's a war in Africa, an economic feud with Europe, a devastating flood/hurricane/earthquake in Florida, a senator who won't say yes, a deputy who can't say no and Notre Dame is losing. Again.

They've moved from Thomas Hutchinson to Bernard Bailyn to, oh god, the influence of Cromwell on 1776. Sometimes CJ thinks Leo OK'd Josh bringing Sam on board just so the president would have someone to talk to while he, Leo, got on with running the country.

Toby raises his eyebrows at her from across the room. Sometimes CJ thinks Toby brought her on board just so he'd have someone to raise his eyebrows at.

She comes to work every day and she's not cynical, not really. It's important work she's doing. That they're all doing. And for every TV crew complaining about the lighting in the East Room, there's a group of schoolkids who will never forget the day they met President Bartlet.

There are moments when CJ feels that it's all been worth it -- that she's part of the grand sweep of American history.

She kicks the chair again. This isn't one of them.

 

****************************

 

**"Oval Variations, No. 2"**

Frances Perkins probably didn't spend a lot of time wondering what Harold Ickes was like in the sack, CJ thinks.

Then again, Harold Ickes was no Sam Seaborn.

Sam's standing up now, to better make his point to the president. CJ knows she should be paying attention, but mostly she's hoping that he'll lean on the president's desk, pulling that expensive suit across his nice, toned -- and yes, there it is. CJ Cregg is a happy woman.

Sleeping with Sam would be like sleeping with the Energizer Bunny, she thinks. All hopped-up energy and liquid blue eyes. And CJ's willing to bet he can do more things with that mouth than argue about mercantilism.

And Sam's not the only one, CJ thinks, her gaze switching to the president. She doesn't fantasize about Jed Bartlet, not really, but Abigail Bartlet has the look of a woman with a very happy sex life, and CJ can't help but wonder.

She can't help but wonder about all of them, these men she spends her days with. Frustrating, arrogant, annoying, yes -- but also brilliant, charismatic, good-looking, and, well, hot.

She's slept with two of them, but it isn't the two most people think.

Well, OK, Josh. Yes. They were drunk, but not that drunk, so it's their own fault that Toby and Sam walked into the unlocked room and caught them mid-cigarette. Just that one week, in the middle of nowhere. By now, though, she thinks, the junior staff have probably turned it into a 3-act tragedy wherein she and Josh had nobly put duty before passion.

Well, those of the junior staff who didn't think she and _Toby_ had nobly put duty before passion.

She's never slept with Toby. They've come close, many times, but he is a romantic, really, and CJ suspects that Toby is saving the idea of the two of them until after Bartlet goes home to New Hampshire.

Leo isn't a romantic. Or at least not about anyone other than Jed Bartlet, CJ thinks.

There had been no romance in that night, long ago, after a fund-raising dinner in Michigan. Just need and heat and the surety that neither would ever see the other again. And they've never mentioned it, though when they'd been prepping for Lillienfield, Leo had looked at her when he told Josh, "I was a different person, then."

CJ is a different person, also, and when she fantasizes about Leo now, it starts with him taking off his tie in her office, not a flashback to Michigan. She looks at Leo, taking notes on the budget while the president drones on. And, OK, sometimes it also starts with thoughts of Leo and his best friend. She wonders again about Abbey's sex life.

She looks across the room at Toby, who raises his eyebrows at her. One day soon, she is going to get Toby drunk, tear off his clothes and to hell with his "happily ever after" fantasy.

CJ isn't a romantic, either.


End file.
